Frog Blast the Vent Core!

That's what we are looking for. You can turn on/off detailed error reports in Vista. With it on it gives you more than the standard "Standoff.exe has stopped working and needs to close" message.

The latest patch does correct quite a bit...it's just that ATI isn't exactly honest with what it says it supports. Many of the things it claims to support...it actually doesn't...which is causing some issues. I test on a machine with an NVidia card and the game plays very well, only an occasional crash.

Commodore

That's what we are looking for. You can turn on/off detailed error reports in Vista. With it on it gives you more than the standard "Standoff.exe has stopped working and needs to close" message.

The latest patch does correct quite a bit...it's just that ATI isn't exactly honest with what it says it supports. Many of the things it claims to support...it actually doesn't...which is causing some issues. I test on a machine with an NVidia card and the game plays very well, only an occasional crash.

Frog Blast the Vent Core!

Spaceman

Hmmm. On Mission 1 of the E5 losing path, I always lose the Firekka, apparently to the Targus' guns? Any hints? I've been trying to strip them with little success, as the fighter-bombers probably contribute too...

Frog Blast the Vent Core!

You do not lose the Firekka to the Targu's guns. Like Freyers' says...you need to kill the fighters they are not stopping to launch bombers. So kill the fighters and ignore the Targu. The Targu is killing the Firekka with torps because you are taking too long to kill the fighters. Once the fighters are gone you are ordered to land.

Captain

More thread necromancy. Justified because I'm trying to beat E5M1, Winning Path, on Nightmare. My current favoured solution is to die, become a ghost, and posess the body of one of the techs flying a Rapier.

A salvo of full to empty from the Stiletto's guns can, I think, if they all hit, just about reduce the Vatari's shields to the Red. An HS missile can knock through the shields and take out front or rear armour, which is fine, but I have 4 HS missile and there are 4 Vatari. Theoretically I think if you timed your volley perfectly a Stiletto could take down a Vatari by hitting it with the missile and following it up with guns. Maybe. I've never done it.

I did, once, get the ace to retreat, finished the Sarthas off, and got told by Freyers that I'd have no chance of coming back from the recon sweep and Mission Failed. That was just unfriendly. What level of health does my poor Stiletto need to be at not to arbitrarily lose?

Unknown Enemy

I did, once, get the ace to retreat, finished the Sarthas off, and got told by Freyers that I'd have no chance of coming back from the recon sweep and Mission Failed. That was just unfriendly. What level of health does my poor Stiletto need to be at not to arbitrarily lose?

No, that was saving your life. You didn't "arbitrarily lose" - your damage was anything but arbitrary .

As for the Vatari, they are pretty tough birds to crack when you fly a Stiletto, that's true. You can actually gun them down, though - their shields recharge slower than your guns. That said, it certainly helps to start off with a heatseeker. And of course, if you focus on their ace, you can drive them off fairly easily.

Frog Blast the Vent Core!

You actually did hit on the correct approach for winning the mission on nightmare. You need to force the Ace to retreat. He will do so after sustaining a certain amount of damage. When he retreats, all the other Vatari retreat as well leaving you only with the light fighters to tangle with. Just make sure once he shows up to go right after him with guns and missiles, but don't kill him just force him to retreat. Then you should be able to complete the mission.

Captain

Yeah, I figured. After I learned how to make the Drakhai retreat my success rate for getting to the recon mission turned out to be 50%. It took four tries to succeed at the recon mission because a) I am apparently incapable of flying an evasive course whilst remaining 5,000 m from a given point and b) on the third attempt something got me with a missile as I was just about to get clear, which would have been fine if it hadn't put my Afterburners into the yellow.

I could totally have done that with a damaged Stiletto. Freyers is a big jerk.

Actually, I think the real hero of that mission was the SAR pilot who somehow managed to pull Trigger out from where he'd ejected in the middle of that fleet.

<FONT color=lightblue><B>I was going to say someth

Got my joystick working (apart from the occassional drift where I have to stop, unplug, and replug), and Ep. 5 is great. Excellent work gentlemen.

Whoever designed the Bengal-class carrier did a superb job. I almost feel like playing Ep. 5 mission 1 of the winning path over again just to marvel at it. It's much improved over Unknown Enemy.

I've been playing this on Nighmare and have only gotten to the third mission. This game is probably the most challenging of all the Wing Commanders. I'm thinking about bumping the difficulty down, but I'm not sure if my ego will let me. The strategy for mission 1 has already been discussed: go straight for the ace and get him to retreat. Let him and his buddies go and finish off the light fighters. I agree with Ilanin that the true hero of that mission is whoever picked up Trigger from the scanned fleet mission. I thought he'd be a gonner. I thought it would be cool to fly the Stiletto again. It was nice, but I wouldn't pick it for a difficult mission again (and probably every misson from here on out will be difficult).

Episode 5 winning path mission two was even more difficult and probably took me close to 10 times to complete successfully on nightmare. I found the Sabre to be by far the best choice. Load up IMREC's, target Sarthas, and launch them from about 5K or less. After you launch, immediately target the next Sartha and repeat. Don't worry about making sure it hits. It takes too much precious time and those Sartha don't launch decoys. Do this right away and it will instantly build momentum since each of those downed Sartha will free up wingmen to pursue other targets.

After this, I'd issue an order to my wingmen to attack the Snakier. I'd load up my dumbfires and take out a couple of Drakhai's and/or Hriss fighters as quick as possible. I then order my wingmen to target the other engine of the Snakier in the hopes that they've blown one of them up. I then target the bridge of the Snakier. With a little luck, you might accomplish this and blow up the Snakier right about the time Maverick is bailing.

After this, order your wingmen to attack a Fralthra. I switch components right after I hear my first wingman acknowledge the command (not sure if this makes the other one target the different component). I then target the bridge after I have them hitting the engines. After you mop up the Fralthra, either take on the next Fralthra or go after the Ralatha's then Targu II's. By the time we did this, several Ralaha's were damaged and the other Fralthra was damaged. After I ran out of torps (afterburners long gone), I focussed on staying alive and protecting the Crossbows from the small amount of enemy fighters left. With two Crossbows left in the action, several Morningstars, and one of my wingmen left with a single torp, we managed to destroy every capship and enemy fighter on nightmare difficulty level.

I had also tried this with the Crossbow and Rapier on Nightmare level. With the Crossbow, I was dispatched pretty early in the game; probably not long after Maverick bailed. With the Rapier I could survive fairly long, but with fully active Snakier's Fralthras and Ralatha's, we were gradually overwhelmed by Kilrathi fighters. I found this mission strategy to be identical to the Hakaga mission.